TC 


MS 


The  Hydrography  of  the 
Sacramento  Valley 


<3 


TYPOGRAPHICAL     DESCRIP- 
TION  OF  THE    CATCHMENT; 
AREA    OF    THE    INTERIOR* 
BASIN  #  CONSERVATION   OF 
FLOOD    WATERS    AND    IRRI- 
GATION PROPOSED  AS  REME- 
DIES   FOR     DESTRUCTIVE 
FLOODS  *  RECLAMATION  OF 
THE  SACRAMENTO  AND  SAN 
JOAQUIN   RIVER   LANDS  j*  * 


By  WM.  H.  MILLS 
(Originally  published  in  the  San  Francisco  Call) 


California  State  Board  of  Trade  Bulletin  No.  II. 


Realizing  the  great  importance  of  the  navigation  of  the 
Sacramento  and  San  Joaquin  rivers  and  the  drainage  of  the 
overflowed  region  contiguous  to  them,  the  California  State 
Board  of  Trade,  in  Decemher,  1903,  by  resolution  suggested 
the  holding  of  a  convention  at  Sacramento  to  consider  these 
matters.  The  Sacramento  Chamber  of  Commerce  and  the 

*!•**'*.       SftocIJtpflj  CKamber  of  Commerce  had  the  subject  under  con- 
99   ^i<Jejatioiri,.but.  no  definite  action    was  taken  at    that  time. 

::•*:.•*: '4«*atH.tfe»* •Subject  became  so  pressing  that  the  Sacramento 
Chamber  of  Commerce  took  the  matter  up  and  called  a  State 
convention  at  San  Fancisco,  the  proceedings  of  which  were 
made  public  and  the  problems  involved  were  assigned  to  a 
general  committee  created  by  the  convention. 

The  articles  herewith  written  by  Mr.  William  H.  Mills, 
a  director  of  the  California  State  Board  of  Trade,  handles 
the  subject  in  a  most  intelligent  and  comprehensive  manner. 
These  merit  wide  circulation,  as  they  deal  with  important 
facts  closely  related  to  the  problems  involved.  For  this  rea- 
son the  California  State  Board  of  Trade  produces  this  bul- 
letin in  aid  of  the  inquiry  and  investigation  now  being  made. 
These  articles  first  appeared  in  the  San  Francisco  "Call"  on 
Monday,  June  6th,  and  Monday,  July  4th. 

CALIFORNIA  STATE  BOARD  OF  TRADE, 

ARTHUR  R.  BRIGGS,  Manager. 

—2 


The  Hydrography  of  the 
Sacramento  Valley 


HE  catchment  area  of  the  San  Joaquin  and 
Sacramento  rivers  embraces  approximate- 
ly 48  per  cent  of  the  entire  area  of  the 
State,  or  a  region  comprising  about  70,000 
square  miles. 

These  two  valleys  of  the  Sacramento 
and  San  Joaquin  may  be  termed  the  interior  basin  of  Cali- 
fornia. From  the  highest  point  of  watershed  on  the  south 
to  the  source  of  the  Sacramento  river,  near  Mount  Shasta 
on  the  north,  the  distance  in  a  straight  line  is  about  525 
miles.  Of  this  275  miles  belongs  to  the  San  Joaquin  and 
250  miles  to  the  Sacramento.  Both  rivers  constitute  the 
central  drainage  of  a  region  lying  between  two  ranges  of 
mountains.  The  Sacramento  River,  the  drainage  of  the 
northern  portion  of  this  basin,  flows  south,  the  San  Joaquin 
River,  the  drainage  of  the  southern  portion  of  the  region, 
flows  north,  until  they  find  their  confluence  on  the  eastern 
margin  of  Suisun  Bay.  From  this  point  to  their  outlet  to 


the  sea,  at  the  west  end  of  the  straits  of  the  Golden  Gate, 
they  are  one  river. 

The  Combined  Rivers. 

This  single  river,  which  flows  through  Suisun  Bay,  the 
lower  portion  of  San  Pablo  Bay  and  the  upper  end  of  San 
Francisco  Bay  to  its  final  point  of  emptying  or  drainage  into 
the  sea,  is  without  name,  being  overshadowed  by  geographi- 
cal designations  in  the  way  of  names  of  bays ;  but  the  law  of 
gravitation  operates  quite  unconscious  of  the  names  of  the 
lakes  or  basins  through  which  a  river  flows.  In  very  truth 
the  west  end  of  the  straits  of  the  Golden  Gate  is  the  mouth 
of  the  combined  rivers  which  flow  into  the  Sacramento  and 
San  Joaquin  rivers  and  the  Suisun,  San  Pablo  and  San  Fran- 
cisco bays,  and  when  all  these  are  taken  into  account,  that 
is,  when  the  streams  that  flow  into  the  bays,  including  the 
Napa  River,  Petaluma  Creek  and  the  drainage  of  the  Santa 
Clara,  San  Ramon  and  other  valleys  tributary  to  the  bay 
system  are  considered,  they  form  one  single  river  having  a 
catchment  area  equal  to  75,OOO  square  miles,  which  reaches 
sea  level  through  the  Golden  Gate. 

The  paramount  factor,  when  drainage  is  under  considera- 
tion, is  the  relation  of  this  sea  level  to  the  high  and  low 
water  in  the  system  of  bays  and  the  direct  influence  which 
this  sea  level  has  upon  the  lower  courses  of  the  Sacramento 
and  San  Joaquin  rivers. 

As  the  American  pioneers  found  this  primitive  condition, 
the  tide-  rose  and  fell  every  day  at  Knights  Landing,  thirty- 
five  miles  by  the  channel  of  the  river  above  Sacramento,  and 


the  tide  influenced  the  drainage  capacity  of  the  San  Joaquin 
as  far  inland  as  Stockton.  When  the  Central  Pacific  Rail- 
road was  built,  in  pursuance  of  an  Act  of  Congress  granting 
aid  for  the  construction  of  a  railroad  from  the  Missouri  River 
to  the  Pacific  Ocean,  Sacramento  was  accepted  as  the  Pacific 
Ocean  terminus  because  Pacific  Ocean  tides  were  encountered 
at  that  point. 

A. 

While  the  current  of  a  tidal  river  is  not  absolutely  arrest- 
ed, it  is  obstructed.  At  higri  tide  in  Suisun  Bay,  there  is  still 
a  current  down  the  courses  of  the  Sacramento  and  San  Joa- 
quin, but  on  a  higher  plane.  The  rivers  rise  in  response  to 
this  tidal  influence;  and  the  rise  of  a  river  at  any  given 
point  is  referable  to  one  of  two  causes — reither  the  river  above 
that  point  has  received  an  accession  to  its  current  or  its  out- 
flow is  obstructed  below  the  point.  In  the  case  of  the  Sacra- 
mento and  San  Joaquin  rivers,  it  is  known  that, the  daily  rise 
of  the  river  during  the  drouth  period  of  seven  months  is  re- 
ferable solely  to  the  obstruction  of  the  tide. 

The  tides  of  the  ocean,  then,  obstruct  the  outflow  of  the 
waters  of  the  San  Joaquin  and  Sacramento  rivers  to  a  dis- 
tance of  over  125  miles  from  the  mouth  of  the  combined 
rivers  at  the  western  outlet  of  the  Golden  Gate.  The  Sac- 
ramento River,  opposite  the  city  of  Sacramento,  has  an  ele- 
vation of  30  feet  above  sea  level,  or  less  than  3  inches  to  the 
mile  of  its  course  to  the  sea.  The  ebb  tide  through  the 
Golden  Gate  vastly  exceeds  the  flood  tide  which  flows  inward, 
because  it  carries  outward  the  water  which  the  tide  has  de- 
livered to  the  tidal  reservoir?  composing  the  bay  system  and 
5— 


the  accumulated  arcd  obstructed  waters  of  the  vast  catchment 
area  already  disclosed. 

TOPOGRAPHY  OF  AREA. 

To  this  point,  we  have  but  one  side  of  the  story.  We 
have  brought  to  view  a  river  125  miles  in  length  with  an 
average  fall  of  less  than  three  inches  to  the  mile.  We  must 
now  consider  the  topography  of  the  catchment  area  and 
rainfall  which  feeds  this  river. 

The  two  rivers  which  flow  to  the  north  and  to  the  south 
and  which,  turning  abruptly  west  at  right  angles  to  their 
general  course,  drain  two  great  valleys  having  the  Sierra 
Nevada  Mountains  for  their  eastern  and  the  Coast  Range 
for  their  western  wall,  drain  these  two  ranges  of  mountains 
to  their  very  summits,  and  fully  60  per  cent,  or  42,000  square 
miles,  of  their  catchment  area  has  an  inclination  of  from  10 
degrees  to  60  degrees.  Upon  this  unlifted  area  two-thirds 
of  the  entire  precipitation  of  both  valleys  fall.  While  this 
statement  is  sufficiently  comprehensive  to  those  familiar  with 
the  facts,  for  the  sake  of  perspicuity  it  will  be  illustrated  in 
detail. 

The  Sacramento  River  rises  at  the  north  line  of  Township 
40  north,  in  a  straight  line,  250  miles  by  mathematical  dem- 
onstration from  the  top  of  Mount  Diablo.  From  its  source 
to  the  head  of  the  Sacramento  Valley,  in  a  straight  line  a 
distance  of  48  miles,  it  has  over  3000  feet  fall.  It  receives 
Fall  River,  McCioud  River  and  Pitt  River  as  its  eastern 
tributaries,  and  these  rise  at  an  ^titude  of  between  3000  and 

—6 


4OOO  feet.  They  have  an  average  fall  of  nearly  100  feet  to 
the  mile  in  their  entire  course. 

The  annual  precipitation  in  the  mountain  district,  which 
constitutes  the  catchment  area  of  the  upper  end  of  the  Sac- 
ramento system,  is  more  than  twice  the  annual  rainfall  at 
Chico,  and  in  addition  to  this  the  area  is  subject  to  phenome- 
nal precipitation,  as  for  instance,  five  or  six  inches  in  from 
six  to  ten  hours  at  Delta. 

Following  the  Sacramento  on  both  sides  the  same  condi- 
tion is  maintained.  Cow  Creek,  Deer  Creek,  Antelope  Creek, 
Mill  Creek,  Rock  Creek,  Pine  Creek  and  Butte  Creek  on  the 
east  and  Elder  Creek,  Red  Bank  Creek,  Cottonwood  Creek, 
Toms  Creek  and  Stoney  Creek  on  the  west,  all  in  the  high 
altitudes,  receive  nearly  double  the  annual  precipitation  of 
rainfall  in  their  upper  courses  of  that  which  visits  the  imme- 
diate area  of  the  Sacramento  River,  and  delivers  this  precipi- 
tation, by  reason  of  the  inclination  of  the  mountainous  dis- 
trict, down  channels  which  make  their  currents  necessarily 
torrential. 

Then  the  Feather  River,  two-thirds  of  whose  drainage 
area  stands  at  an  angle  of  from  15  to  60  degrees,  is  encount- 
ered, and  the  Yuba  and  Bear  rivers,  branches  of  the  Feather 
River,  are  practically  mountain  torrents. 

The  American  River. 

Topographical  facts  relating  to  the  American  River  will  be 
given  in  detail  as  peculiarly  illustrative  of  the  situation.  The 
American  River  has  its  confluence  with  the  Sacramento  River 
at  the  city  of  Sacramento.  The  mouth  of  the  American 
7— 


River  is  in  township  8  north,  range  4  east.  It  has  three 
well-defined  river  channels  in  township  13  north,  range  15 
east.  The  surveys  of  the  Government  show  that  the  dis- 
tance between  the  mouth  and  the  well-defined  sources  of  this 
river  is  but  fifty-four  miles  and  these  sources  are  6000  feet 
above  the  mouth  of  the  river. 

It  is  difficult  to  realize,  but  it  is  mathematically  true,  that 
a  horizontal  line  fifty-four  miles  long  drawn  from  the  head- 
waters of  the  American  down  to  its  mouth  would  stand  6000 
feet  above  the  city  of  Sacramento,  and  the  river  channel 
must  take  up  all  of  this  fall  in  its  course  of  less  than  seventy- 
five  miles,  even  by  way  of  the  channel  itself.  Here  is  an 
important  tributary  of  the  Sacramento  River,  having  an 
average  fall  of  eighty  feet  to  the  mile,  delivering  its  rainfall 
and  its  snow  melt  into  a  channel  which,  from  that  point  to 
the  sea,  has  less  than  three  inches  of  fall  to  the  mile. 

The  upper  courses  of  the  American  River  have  more  than 
double  the  annual  precipitation  of  that  recorded  at  the  city 
of  Sacramento.  Graphically  presented,  then,  draw  two 
straight  lines,  one  running  norh  275  miles  and  the  other  south 
250  miles  to  a  point  of  junction,  where  they  turn  at  right 
angles  west  to  the  sea  through  a  single  combined  channel; 
then  from  the  high  summits  of  twro  mountain  ranges  draw 
the  confluents  at  right  angles  with  the  central  drainage  and 
with  the  central  axis  of  the  mountains ;  give  these  tributaries 
a  decliviy  of  from  sixty  to  one  hundred  feet  fall  to  the  mile 
and  give  their  catchment  areas  double  the  annual  precipita- 
tion of  the  lower  courses  of  the  main  drainage  and  we  have 
a  series  of  torrential  streams  delivering  flood  volumes  in  a 

—8 


comparatively  few  hours  into  channels  which  possess  the  very 
meager  and  limited  drainage  capacity  of  less  than  three  inches 
fall  to  the  mile. 

B. 

Cache  Creek  and  Putah  Creek  each  flow  into  the  Yolo 
Solano  basin,  and  furnish  additional  illustration.  Cache 
Creek  rises  in  Clear  Lake,  thus  adding  the  most  of  Lake 
County  to  the  catchment  area  of  the  Sacramento  River. 
Putah  Creek  rises  in  the  eastern  portion  of  Napa  County 
and  thus  adds  nearly  one-half  of  that  county  to  the  drainage 
area  of  the  Sacramento  River.  From  the  outlet  at  Lower 
Lake  to  Rumsey  at  the  head  of  Capay  Valley,  it  is  16  miles, 
and  the  river  in  that  district  has  a  i6oo-foot  fall;  through 
Capay  Valley  from  Rumsey  to  Capay,  26  miles,  the  river 
has  400 foot  fall ;  from  Capay  to  Tule  Basin  it  has  1 2-foot 
fall  to  the  mile. 

The  Inexorable  Law  of  Drainage. 

The  cross  section  area  of  a  river-bed  must  be  correlated 
with  the  volume  of  water  it  is  supposed  to  carry  at  any 
given  rate  of  fall.  The  stream  is  attenuated  down  a  chan- 
nel possessing  a  steep  declivity.  It  is  enlarged  as  the  rate 
of  fall  decreases  and  the  cross  section  area  of  the  river  must 
be  correspondingly  increased  to  carry  its  waters  within  its 
banks.  The  cross  section  area  must  correspond  exactly  with 
the  volume  of  water  to  be  carried  and  the  velocity  of  the  cur- 
rent. 

When  the  accumulated  flood  waters  of  all  the  tributaries 
of  the  Sacramento,  which,  as  shown,  have  their  rise  in  the 


high  altitudes  of  two  ranges  of  mountains,  the  cross  section 
area  of  the  channel  of  the  central  drainage  must  be  greatly 
augmented  to  compensate  for  the  diminution  of  the  fall. 

Applying  these  principles,  the  cross  section  area  of  the  Sac- 
ramento River  at  flood  stages  can  be  readily  postulated.  For 
the  time  being,  the  flood  stage  is  a  river  and  the  area  it  occu- 
pies is  merely  its  natural  channel  or  the  channel  that  would 
be  occupied  if  the  flood  stage  was  merely  the  normal  condi- 
tion of  that  river. 

Tide  Obstructs  the  Current. 

When  a  tide  moves  eastward  through  the  Straits  of  Car- 
qu:nez  drainage  of  the  great  basin  is  entiHj  suspended  and, 
as  already  shown,  there  is  an  obstructing  tidal  influence  for 
at  least  one  hundred  miles  up  the  channels  of  both  rivers. 
Thus  the  low  stage  of  Suisun  Bay  affords  all  the  drainage 
these  rivers  can  by  any  possibility  have.  But  the  elevation 
of  Suisun  Bay  is  determined  by  the  relation  of  the  sea  to  the 
bay  system,  and  the  lower  courses  of  the  rivers  cannot  be 
changed  or  modified  except  by  a  change  of  the  sea  level  itself. 

Owing  to  the  greater  rainfall  upon  the  catchment  area 
of  the  Sacramento,  its  flood  stages  are  often  higher  than  those 
of  the  San  Joaquin.  The  observation  of  this  phenomenon 
has  led  to  the  fallacy  of  supposing  that  the  Sacramento  might 
be  relieved  by  turning  its  waters  into  the  channel  of  the  San 
Joaquin  by  an  artificial  canal ;  that  is,  invoking  the  aid  of  the 
San  Joaquin  in  the  drainage  of  the  Sacramento.  But  the 
sea  level  status  of  Suisun  Bay  is  the  controlling  factor  when 
drainage  is  considered.  When  the  waters  of  these  rivers  reach 

—10 


Suisun  Bay  they  are  subject  to  the  same  law;  therefore,  the 
proposition  to  empty  the  waters  of  one  into  the  channel  of  the 
other  is  attended  by  the  absurdity  of  supposing  that  a  river 
may  empty  itself  by  delivering  a  part  of  its  current  into  its 
own  channel.  Both  rivers  find  a  common  and  paramount 
obstruction  in  the  ocean  tides  of  Suisun  Bay. 

The  meteorological  conditions  to  which  the  recurrence  of 
great  floods  in  the  interior  basin  are  referable  are  familiar  to 
all  the  residents  of  the  valleys.  One  foot  of  newly-fallen 
snow  is  equal  to  one  inch  of  rainfall,  but  when  ten  feet  of 
snow  is  found  it  equals  fifteen  or  eighteen  inches  of  rainfall, 
because  the  snow  has  compacted  by  its  weight.  When  the 
upper  courses  of  the  tributaries  of  the  Sacramento  lying  from 
5000  to  6000  feet  above  the  central  drainage  of  the  valley 
contain  from  five  to  ten  feet  of  snow  and  receive  a  precipita- 
tion of  from  ten  to  fifteen  inches  of  rainfall  within  three  days 
that  carries  off  the  snow,  the  water  is  delivered  to  the  drain- 
age channels  of  those  tributaries  as  rain  runs  off  the  steep 
roofs  of  houses. 

Receive  the  Floods. 

The  Sacramento  and  San  Joaquin  are  tidal  rivers  for  nearly 
100  miles  of  their  lower  courses  and  must  receive  these  tor- 
rential floods  and  deliver  them  to  the  ocean  through  channels 
which  have  but  thirty  feet  fall  in  125  miles. 

Thus  it  is  that,  after  an  American  occupancy  of  fifty-five 
years,  the  problem  of  drainage  remains  unsolved.  But  litfle 
has  been  learned  and  absolutely  nothing  has  been  done  to  meet 
the  exigencies  of  the  situation.  The  great  flood  of  the  early 
11— 


5o's,  the  greater  flood  of  February,  1861,  and  the  recurrent 
great  flood  of  1904  manifested  the  same  destructive  tenden- 
cies that  would  have  attended  them  100  years  ago.  They 
destroyed  the  island  reclamation  at  the  mouths  of  the  Sac- 
ramento and  San  Joaquin  rivers,  and  with  it  destroyed  the 
engineering  theories  that  such  reclamation  is  not  an  obstruc- 
tion to  the  outflow  of  the  floods.  The  recurrence  of  great 
floods  is  just  as  certain  as  the  recurrence  of  the  rainy  season. 

Uplifted  areas  like  those  which  constitute  more  than  half 
the  interior  basin,  must  necessarily  suffer  erosion  when  the 
surface  of  their  escarpment  is  broken  by  the  pasturage  of 
domestic  animals  and  the  general  occupation  of  man.  This 
erosion  was  accelerated  by  hydraulic  and  other  mining,  but 
it  had  been  in  process  centuries  before  California  was  inhabit- 
ed and  will  continue  in  all  the  centuries  to  come.  In  a  com- 
paratively recent  period  the  system  of  bays  extended  to  the 
mouth  of  the  Feather  River  and  up  the  San  Joaquin  as  far 
as  Stockton.  In  the  process  of  time  Suisun  Bay  will  be  filled 
and  the  Sacramento  and  San  Joaquin  rivers  will  flow  through 
one  well-defined  channel  into  the  Straits  of  Carquinez  and 
thence  to  the  sea. 

Chapters  of  Failures. 

The  history  of  engineering  experiment  and  theory  presents 
merely  chapters  of  failures.  Engineers  were  found  to  approve 
of  the  drainage  act  under  which  an  attempt  was  made  to 
impound  the  mining  detritus  by  the  construction  of  brush 
dams.  The  distinguished  engineer  James  B.  Eads  was 
brought  to  the  State  for  the  purpose  of  bearing  testimony  in 

—12 


favor  of  the  practicability  of  that  scheme.  He  gave  a  very 
reluctant  assent,  saying  that  the  experiment  was  worthy  the 
trial,  but  the  experiment  merely  demonstrated  the  utter  fal- 
lacy of  all  the  theories  concerning  it.  Two  hundred  and 
fifty  thousand  dollars  of  State  money  was  expended  to  make 
this  one  experiment.  The  channel  of  the  Yuba,  a  high  alti- 
tude tributary  of  the  Feather  River,  was  selected  for  the  ex- 
periment. The  first  flood  destroyed  the  works  that  had  been 
erected  for  its  control,  with  an  imperious  disregard  for  engi- 
neering theories. 

The  Sierra  Nevada  tributaries  of  the  Sacramento  and  San 
Joaquin  rivers  have  a  velocity  of  current  which  makes  it  im- 
possible to  check  arrest  or  impound  their  waters  in  their 
channels.  The  force  of  ten  thousand  cannon  balls  would  be 
feeble  in  comparison  with  the  torrents  which  sweep  with  de- 
structive velocity  down  these  streams.  A  stone  dam  anchored 
to  the  bedrock  might  be  constructed  to  stand,  but  the  reser- 
voir area  would  fill  up  the  first  season  and  the  detritus  which 
results  from  the  perpetual  erosion  of  the  mountain  declivities 
would  simply  fall  over  the  top  of  the  dam  and  possess  no 
economical  value  unless  for  creating  electrical  power. 

Remedy  Is  Proposed. 

It  would  be  merely  quoting  the  opinion  of  engineers  to 
say  that  the  only  remedy  for  this  is  the  storage  of  the  flood 
waters  of  these  streams.  All  of  the  tributaries  of  the  two 
drainage  channels  of  the  valleys  might  be  economically  stored 
when  they  reach  the  general  level  of  the  plain  below,  while 
up  the  mountain  courses  of  many  of  these  streams  there  is 
13— 


ample  opportunity  for  holding  back  the  flood  waters  and  feed- 
ing them  into  the  main  channels  at  a  rate  consistent  with 
their  drainage  capacity.  In  the  course  of  time  this  will  be 
done.  In  the  natural  course  of  events  the  Sacramento  and 
San  Joaquin  valleys  will  be  irrigated  and  irrigation  uniformly 
destroys  rivers. 

The  Government  of  the  United  States  has  entered  upon  a 
scheme  of  arid  land  reclamation  by  irrigation,  as  relates  to 
the  Colorado  River,  which  will  destroy  the  navigability  of 
that  stream.  It  has  already  assumed  the  position  that  the 
superior  public  uses  of  the  Colorado  River  is  irrigation,  and 
not  navigation.  Water  sufficient  to  irrigate  the  great  inte- 
rior basin  of  this  State  must  necessarily  be  stored.  The 
summer  stages  of  all  the  streams,  which  when  combined  create 
the  Sacramento  and  San  Joaquin  rivers,  are  not  equal  to  the 
demand  for  the  irrigation  of  these  great  valleys.  When  the 
aggregate  precipitation  of  common  years  is  accumulated  by 
storage  and  devoted  to  the  fertilization  of  the  Sacramento  and 
San  Joaquin  plains,  the  flood  stages  of  the  Sacramento  and 
San  Joaquin  will  disappear. 

Combination  of  meteorological  conditions  will  create  floods 
at  wide  intervals  of  time,  which  will  be  more  or  less  destruc- 
tive, but  the  usual  condition  will  be  full  channels  all  the  year 
round  attended  by  navigable  conditions  of  the  highest  eco- 
nomic value.  That  this  result  will  be  achieved  is  inevitable 
and  the  force  that  will  bring  it  into  being  is  the  obvious  values 
to  be  developed  by  the  undertaking. 

The  task  of  impounding  the  flood  waters  of  the  streams 
supplying  the  great  interior  water  ways  appears  stupendous 

—14 


only  to  those  who  are  unfamiliar  with  precedent.  We  stand 
appalled  before  the  vast  sums  of  money  required  for  its  ac- 
complishment, but  the  magnitude  of  these  sums  sinks  into 
comparative  insignificance  when  measured  by  the  stupendous 
aggregate  o  f value  to  be  created  and  the  vast  populations 
hereafter  to  be  sharers  in  the  invaluable  benefits. 

In  further  discussion  of  the  important  subject  of  the 
reclamation  of  the  Sacramento  and  San  Joaquin  river  lands, 
Mr.  Mills  says: 

Public  policies  are  founded  upon  the  ascertained  knowl- 
edge and  the  most  cogent  reasons  influencing  determination 
in  the  minds  of  men  at  the  time  of  their  adoption.  Later, 
when  the  knowledge  is  becoming  obscure  and  the  argument 
which  prevailed  in  the  adoption  of  the  policy  is  forgotten, 
the  policy  is  often  summoned  to  the  bar  of  public  opinion 
for  a  new  hearing  and  determination.  Because  human 
judgment  is  not  infallible  the  unexpected  is  the  only  thing 
that  is  certain  to  happen,  and  since  all  human  institutions  are 
impeachable,  it  is  eminently  proper  that  their  wisdom  should 
be  reviewed  in  the  strong  light  of  experience. 

It  is  sometimes  unfortunate  that  the  assault  upon  an  es- 
tablished policy  is  led  by  persons  who  are  unfamiliar  with 
the  history  of  legislation  relating  to  such  policy,  and  who, 
with  that  intrepidity  which  attends  insufficient  information, 
become  the  proponent  of  methods  once  fully  investigated  or 
tried  and  condemned. 

Policy   of  Reclamation. 
The  reclamation  policy  of  California  is  just  now  under- 


going  preliminary  impeachment  preparatory  to  the  introduc- 
tion of  proposed  reforms.  A  review  of  the  policy  now  pro- 
posed and  a  presentation  of  the  relations  it  bears  to  the  history 
of  legislation  cannot  be  devoid  of  popular  interest. 

The  proposed  changes  in  the  policy  of  reclamation  may  be 
summarized  as  follows: 

"i. — To  abandon  the  policy  of  reclamation  by  districts  or 
other  economic  consideration  relating  to  the  relative  reclaim- 
ability  of  land  and  resort  to  reclamation  by  a  single  system 
In  which  all  the  swamp  lands  shall  be  assessed  equally  for  the 
reclamation  of  all. 

"2. — To  this  end  it  is  proposed  that  the  State  shall  resume 
control  of  all  swamp  land,  whether  reclaimed  or  unreclaimed, 
levying  a  special  assessment  on  the  reclaimed  swamp  land  of 
the  State  in  the  interest  of  reclaiming  all  of  the  swamp  land. 

"3. — To  levy  a  general  annual  tax  upon  all  property  in  the 
State  for  a  period  of  ten  years  and  ask  the  Government  to 
co-operate  for  an  equivalent  sum  for  the  same  period. 

"4. — To  estimate  the  cost  of  a  complete  reclamation  sys- 
tem, including  the  rectification  of  river  channels,  the  con- 
struction of  additional  channels  for  the  relief  of  flood  waters, 
and  after  subtracting  the  sum  contributed  from  the  general 
taxation  on  all  property  of  the  State  and  the  contribution  of 
the  Federal  Government,  to  assess  the  remaining  cost  for  this 
general  reclamation  upon  all  the  lands  of  the  district  regard- 
less of  relative  benefits." 

Disregarding  general  details,  these  four  propositions  out- 
line the  reformed  policy  now  proposed. 

—16 


Story  of  the  Grant. 

By  Act  of  Congress,  approved  September  28,  1850,  the 
State  of  California  received  approximately  1,500,000  acres  of 
swamp  and  overflowed  lands.  The  act  itself  declared  that 
the  donation  was  made  "to  enable  the  several  States  to  con- 
struct the  necessary  levees  and  drains  to  reclaim  the  swamp 
and  overflow  lands  therein."  The  Act  then  proceeds  to 
declare : 

"It  shall  be  the  duty  of  the  Secretary  of  the  Interior  to 
make  accurate  lists  and  plats  of  all  such  lands,  and  transmit 
the  same  to  the  Governors  of  the  several  States  in  which  said 
lands  may  lie,  and  at  the  request  of  the  Governor  of  any  State 
in  which  said  swamp  and  overflow  lands  may  be,  to  cause 
patents  to  be  issued  to  said  State  therefor,  conveying  to  said 
State  the  fee-simple  of  said  lands. 

"The  proceeds  of  said  lands  made  from  sale  or  by  direct 
appropriation  in  kind,  shall  be  applied  exclusively,  as  far  as 
necessary,  to  reclaiming  said  lands  by  means  of  levees  and 
drains." 

The  foregoing  excerpts  present  the  letter  of  the  law.  It 
is  of  the  highest  importance  that  the  terminology  employed 
should  have  careful  consideration. 

The  first  paragraph  quoted  declares  that  the  Secretary  of 
the  Interior  shall  make  lists  and  plats  of  the  lands  and  at 
the  request  of  the  Governor  of  any  State,  shall  cause  patents 
to  be  issued  to  the  State,  "conveying  to  said  State  the  fee- 
simple  of  said  land."  The  statute  itself  plainly  declares  that 
the  patent  issued  by  the  Government  of  the  United  States 


shall  convey  a  title  in  fee  simple  and  this  is  the  full  equivalent 
of  declaring  that  the  title  is  passed  by  the  patent  without 
condition. 

But  the  second  paragraph  quoted  enjoins  upon  the  State 
the  policy  of  applying  the  proceeds  derived  from  the  sale  of 
the  land  to  the  reclamation  of  the  lands  themselves  by  the 
construction  of  levees  and  drains. 

Provision  Not  Mandatory. 

The  provision  that  the  proceeds  of  the  sale  should  be  ap- 
plied exclusively,  so  far  as  necessary,  to  the  reclamation  of 
the  swamp  lands  was  advisory  and  not  mandatory.  This 
statement  must  be  accepted  as  conclusive  since  the  act  itself 
declares  that  the  Government  patent  conveys  "to  the  said 
State  the  fee  simple  of  the  land."  Any  reservation  or  excep- 
tion on  the  part  of  the  Government  was  necessarily  cut  off  by 
the  issue  of  the  patent,  while  at  the  same  time  it  may  be  freely 
admitted  that  the  whole  transaction  has  the  color  of  a  grant 
for  purposes  of  reclamation.  This  is,  however,  not  to  be 
construed  as  a  declaration  that  such  reclamation  is  a  condi- 
tion precedent  to  the  receipt  of  title  or  that  the  failure  to  re- 
claim shall  work  a  forfeiture  of  such  title. 

The  State  was  admitted  to  the  Union  of  States  on  Septem- 
ber 9,  1850,  and  the  act  in  question  was  passed  September 
28,  1850,  when  the  State  was  only  nineteen  days  old. 

If  the  obligation  of  reclamation  arbitrarily  accompanied 
the  gift  the  propriety  of  its  acceptance  would  have  been  de- 
batable, if  not  wholly  inadvisable.  The  conditions  attend- 
ing the  swamp  lands  granted  were  wholly  unknown.  The 

—18 


economic  value  of  the  grant  itself  was  equally  unknown. 
Hence  the  people  of  California  could  not  have  known  whe- 
ther the  acceptance  of  the  grant  accompanied  by  an  arbitrary 
obligation  to  reclaim  all  the  lands  granted  would  not  be  the 
assumption  of  a  task  the  fulfillment  of  which  would  be 
wholly  uneconomic,  if  not  impossible. 

No  Time  Limit  Made. 

There  was  no  declaration  in  the  law  and  no  possible  in- 
ference to  be  derived  from  it  imposing  upon  the  State  the 
duty  to  reclaim  the  land  within  a  given  time  or  to  reclaim 
all  of  the  swTamp  and  overflowed  lands  granted.  On  the 
contrary,  it  was  clearly  within  the  province  of  the  State  to 
proceed  with  such  reclamation  in  such  a  manner  as  to  ac- 
complish the  ultimate  result  at  such  time  and  in  such  way  as 
would  be  most  advantageous  to  the  State  itself. 

The  first  Act  relating  to  swamp  land  was  approved  May  1, 
1851,  eight  months  after  the  date  of  the  Act  granting  the 
land.  This  Act  granted  640  acres  of  swamp  land  on  Merritt 
Island  to  John  F.  Booth  and  David  Galloway,  and  provided 
that  they  should  reclaim  the  land,  bring  it  under  cultivation 
and  report  the  result  to  the  Legislature.  The  cautious  and 
conservative  wisdom  of  this  Act  will  be  apparent. 

From  this  beginning,  which  related  merely  to  an  experi- 
ment with  640  acres  of  swamfp  land  very  easily  reclaimable, 
the  subject  occupied  legislative  attention  at  intervals  until 
1868,  when  the  general  Act  which  to-day  constitutes  the 
frame-work  of  the  State  swamp  land  policy  was  enacted. 

The  policy  underlying  this  Act  was  evolutionary.    It  was 


the  suggestion  of  legislative  experiment  beginning  with  the 
Act  quoted,  and  rising  through  the  Acts  of  April  25,  1855, 
April  21,  1858,  April  18,  1859,  May  13,  1861,  April  27, 
1863,  and  April  22,  1866.  Each  of  these  acts  underwent 
preliminary  discussion  in  the  public  mind  and  parliamentary 
examination  by  the  Legislature.  Leading  up  to  the  Act  of 
1 868,  the  entire  question  of  swamp  land  reclamation  was  made 
the  subject  of  thoughtful  examination  and  public  advocacy 
by  the  very  best  minds  the  State  has  ever  produced. 

The  suggestion  of  combining  all  the  swamp  land  into  one 
reclamation  district  and  pursuing  a  system  of  reclamation 
that  would  distribute  the  burden  of  its  cost  to  each  acre  of 
swamp  land  alike,  regardless  of  the  relative  reclamability  of 
the  land,  is  now  brought  forward  as  an  original  suggestion, 
whereas  it  was  advocated  and  traversed  until  not  one  grain 
of  wrheat  was  left  in  tlic  thrice-threshed  straw. 

Experience  Is  Cited. 

The  experience  of  reclamation  in  older  countries  was  ap- 
pealed to  and  the  lesson  of  such  experiment  was  read  into 
the  current  discussion  of  the  time.  The  policy  of  attempt- 
ing a  complete  reclamation  of  all  swamp  lands  by  placing  the 
ultimate  value  of  all  such  lands  behind  the  enterprise  was  re- 
jected, because  then,  as  now,  the  data  upon  which  the  ecen- 
omic  value  of  the  policy  could  be  determined  was  wholly 
wanting.  There  was  not  then  and  is  not  to-day  sufficient 
information  concerning  the  cost  of  reclamation  by  that  plan, 
or  the  economic  value  of  the  result,  to  justify  the  undertaking. 

The  granting  act  required  the  Secretary  of  the  Interior  to 

—20 


make  an  accurate  list  and  plat  of  all  the  swamp  lands  and 
transmit  these  plats  to  the  Governors  of  the  States  being 
beneficiaries  of  the  grant  and  upon  the  request  of  such  States, 
to  issue  patents  conveying  the  title  in  fee-simple.  This  had 
not  been  done  when  the  people  of  California  addressed  their 
attention  seriously  to  the  question  of  reclaiming  these  lands 
in  good  faith  and  of  adding  their  areas  to  the  productive 
wealth  of  the  State;  and  the  requirements  of  the  law  have 
not  yet  been  fully  accomplished. 

The  knowledge  of  the  subject  was  general,  not  specific. 
It  was  well  known  that  the  lands  were  divided  by  their 
physical  condition  into  five  natural  classes: 

"i. — Lands  overflowed  at  extreme  flood  stages  of  the  rivers 
and  covered  with  water  for  a  period  so  short  as  to  be  benefi- 
cial rather  than  injurious  and  to  be  practically  a  substitute 
for  annual  irrigation. 

"2. — Lands  overflowed  but  a  short  period  in  each  year  and 
at  medium  flood  stages  of  rivers ;  reciaimable  at  small  cost  and 
possessing  high  intrinsic  value  after  reclamation. 

"3 — Marsh  lands  on  the  margin  of  tidal  reservoirs  com- 
prising the  bay  system,  economically  reclaimable  and  highly 
valuable  when  reclaimed. 

"4 — Swamp  lands  lying  within  a  single  hydrographic  sys- 
tem, comprising  all  the  grades  of  relative  reclaimability,  but 
more  economically  reclaimable  by  treatment  as  a  system  than 
in  separate  parts. 

"5. — Lands  wholly  irreclaimable  by  any  other  method  than 
an  absolute  control  of  the  entire  hydrographic  phenomena  of 
the  interior  basin  of  the  State." 
21— 


Revenue  Lacking. 

The  cost  relating  to  the  reclamation  of  this  fifth  class  was 
far  beyond  the  financial  possibilities  of  the  time.  The  only 
inducement  to  the  reclamation  of  any  of  the  land  was  the 
value  of  the  land  after  its  reclamation.  There  was  no 
source  of  revenue  available  for  this  purpose.  The  legislative 
experiments  prior  to  1868  had  demonstrated  this  fact  beyond 
all  controversy.  The  appeal  to  State  or  Government  aid 
was  wholly  impracticable.  The  State  was  not  in  a  position 
financially  to  enter  upon  the  cost  of  reclaiming  all  its  swamp 
land  property  in  one  general  scheme  of  reclamation,  because 
it  was  apparent  then  as  now  that  the  cost  of  such  an  under- 
taking would  exceed  $100,000,000,  while  the  assurance  which 
would  have  proffered  a  request  to  the  Government  to  add  its 
munificence  by  reclaiming  the  property  it  had  presented  to 
the  State  had  not  reached  the  stage  of  pauperizing  depend- 
ence it  has  attained  in  recent  times. 

Mining  was  the  paramount  industry  of  the  country  and  the 
hydraulic  method  was  in  full  operation.  Hydraulic  mining 
was  charging  the  tributaries  of  the  Sacramento  and  San  Joa- 
quin  rivers  with  detritus,  which  was  being  forced  down  the 
channels  of  these  tributaries  on  a  declivity  of  100  feet  to  the 
mile  and  into  a  central  drainage  having  less  than  four  inches 
to  the  mile.  The  detritus  thus  forced  into  the  channel  of 
the  main  streams  must  necessarily  lodge,  and  the  time  at 
which  the  Sacramento  River  in  particular  would  wander  at 
will  over  the  alluvial  bottom  land  of  the  valley  could  not  be 
foretold. 

All  commercial  and  industrial  activities,  including  agricul- 

—22 


ture,  horitculture,  manufacturing  and  merchandise,  were 
then  merely  subordinate  and  allied  industries  to  mining.  The 
absence  of  rail  communication  with  the  East  had  denied  an 
Eastern  market  for  the  field,  orchard  and  vineyard  products 
of  the  State.  Hence  the  proposition?  of  arresting  the  de- 
struction of  the  valley  by  enjoining  hydraulic  mining  had 
not  been  dreamed  of. 

The  rapid  filling  up  of  the  main  channel  of  the  central 
drainage  constituted  a  menace  to  successful  reclamation.  The 
danger  was  apparent  that  the  river  beds  would  fill  up,  that 
the  flood  maximums  would  rise,  that  reclamation  levees  would 
have  to  be  increased  in  height  and  that  vast  quantities  of 
mining  detritus  would  be  imposed  upon  the  valley  lands. 

The  Only  Inducement* 

The  State  was  confronted  with  the  condition,  which  had 
been  fully  demonstrated  by  experiment,  that  the  value  of  the 
land  when  reclaimed  was  the  only  inducement  to  its  recla- 
mation. It  therefore  entered  upon  the  reclamation  of  that 
which  was  most  readily  and  economically  reclaimable,  leav- 
ing the  more  costly  work  of  reclamation  to  a  time  when  al- 
luvial deposition,  which  was  then  and  is  now  steadily  in  pro- 
gress, would  make  the  problem  of  reclamation  more  easy, 
when,  by  reason  of  the  growth  of  the  commonwealth  and 
the  greater  density  of  its  population,  the  land  reclaimed 
would  possess  a  higher  value. 

During  the  discussion  which  was  the  Genesis  of  the  Act  of 
1 868,  it  was  proposed  by  some  of  the  very  best  minds  of  the 
State  to  adopt  the  mound  system  of  reclamation  in  use  on  the 


lower  course  of  the  Nile.  The  late  B.  B.  Redding,  to 
whose  patriotism  and  intellectual  breadth  this  commonwealth 
is  still  under  obligation,  was  the  leading  proponent  of  this 
plan. 

The  wisdom  of  the  Act  of  1868  has  been  fully  demon- 
strated. Since  the  enactment  of  that  law,  the  swamp  land  pol- 
icy of  the  State  has  been  the  subject  of  legislative  attention, 
as  the  acts  approved  on  the  following  dates  fully  attest: 
March,  16,  1872;  March  28,  1872:  Congressional  Resolu 
tion,  1878;  March  29,  1878;  April  I,  1878;  April  23,  1880; 
March  24,  1893;  March  17,  1897;  March  2,  1901,  and 
March  16,  1901.  Notwithstanding  these  acts,  the  general 
policy  underlying  the  Act  of  1868  has  not  been  changed  in 
any  essential  feature. 

Reference  has  already  been  made  to  the  fact  that  no  one 
possesses  sufficient  information  on  the  subject  to  determine, 
even  with  a  remote  probability  of  accuracy,  the  economic 
value  of  a  reclamation  scheme  having  for  its  object  the  rec- 
lamation of  all  the  overflowed  lands  belonging  to  the  State. 
But  beyond  this,  the  question  of  the  practicability  of  the 
scheme  from  its  legal  aspect  is  worthy  of  thoughtful  con- 
sideration. 

Question  of  Legality. 

More  than  1,200,000  acres  of  land  granted  to  the  State  of 
swamp  and  overflowed  land  have  been  granted  to  individuals 
by  patent  which  conveys  the  title  without  conditions.  These 
lands,  notwithstanding  they  belong  to  the  category  of  swamp 
and  overflowed  lands,  are  as  completely  exempt  from  special 

—24 


assessment  for  the  reclamation  of  other  lands  as  any  other 
lands  of  the  State. 

The  decision  of  the  Supreme  Court  in  the  case  of  Kimball 
vs.  Reclamation  Fund  Commission,  by  superficial  reading, 
would  seem  to  hold  that  Congress  had  by  the  Act  granting 
swamp  and  overflow  lands  to  the  State  imposed  upon  the 
grant  itself  the  condition  that  the  lands  be  reclaimed.  What 
the  court  decided  was  that,  whereas  the  Legislature  had  in- 
augurated a  system  for  the  reclamation  of  these  lands  by  or- 
ganizing a  Board  of  Commissioners  who  were  to  superintend 
the  work,  and  had  provided  that  in  any  district  where  a  peti- 
tion representing  one-third  in  acres  of  the  tract  of  land  pro- 
posed to  be  reclaimed  was  located,  the  appellant  was  bound 
in  law  to  take  notice  of  the  public  statute  and  must  be  deem- 
ed to  have  accepted  the  title  in  subordination  of  the  para- 
mount right  and  duty  of  the  land  to  be  reclaimed ;  that  a  gen- 
eral system  for  the  purpose  of  reclamation  had  been  inaugu- 
rated and  that  wherever  under  the  provisions  of  the  law  the 
practical  measures  of  reclamation  had  been  set  up  the  owners 
of  land  within  such  district  must  submit  to  assessment  for  the 
reclamation  of  the  land  they  owned ;  that  the  owner  of  lands 
in  a  district  to  be  reclaimed  could  not  decline  to  contribute 
to  the  cost  of  such  reclamation  and  then  enjoy  the  increment 
which  would  ensue,  but  must  contribute  equally  with  other 
owners,  in  the  same  district  to  the  reclamation  cost. 

But  this  is  far  from  declaring  that  the  owners  of  swamp 
land  which  has  been  reclaimed,  who  have  received  patents 
from  the  State  conveying  a  title  without  conditions,  may  now 
be  subjected  to  assessments  upon  their  land  for  the  purpose 
25— 


of  reclaiming  swamp  land  which  they  do  not  own. 
Rulings  of  the  Courts. 

It  has  been  claimed  that  whoever  accepts  title  to  swamp 
land  accepts  such  title  in  subordination  to  the  paramount 
right  and  duty  of  the  State  to  cause  the  land  to  be  reclaimed 
by  any  method  it  might  see  fit  to  employ.  If  this  contention 
had  been  understood  to  be  true,  the  liability  of  expenditure 
on  account  of  the  reclamation  of  any  swamp  land  purchased 
from  the  State  would  never  cease  until  the  last  acre  of  swamp 
and  overflowed  land  had  been  reclaimed.  If  this  doctrine 
had  been  promulgated  and  believed  in  from  the  first,  the 
State  would  never  have  parted  title  with  one  single  acre,  be- 
cause, while  the  economic  value  of  reclaimed  portions  of  the 
swamp  land  might  be  ascertained,  the  profitableness  of  re- 
claiming it  all  at  the  expense  of  all  was  wholly  unascertain- 
able.  No  one  would  have  attempted  the  reclamation  of  a 
portion  of  this  land  with  the  understanding  that  he  was  event- 
ually to  be  charged  with  a  proportionate  cost  of  reclaiming 
all  the  other  swamp  and  overflowed  lands  of  the  State. 

But  the  fact  that  the  swamp  lands  purchased  from  the 
State  are  not  charged  with  the  duty  or  obligation  to  reclaim 
other  lands  is  no  longer  debatable  or  doubtful.  Whatever 
construction  the  decisions  of  the  State  court  in  this  relation 
may  be  susceptible  of,  the  decisions  of  the  Supreme  Court  of 
the  United  States  with  reference  to  the  meaning  of  the  Act 
granting  swamp  and  overflowed  lands  to  States  are  not  am- 
biguous and  obscure. 

In  deciding  the  case  of  Mills  County  vs.  Railroad  Com- 
panies, 107  U.  S.,  557>  it  was  held: 

—26 


"The  proviso  of  the  second  section  of  the  Act,  that  the  pro- 
ceeds of  the  lands  shall  be  applied  exclusively,  as  far  as  nec- 
essary, to  the  purpose  of  reclaiming  the  same  by  levees  and 
drains,  imposed  an  obligation  which  rests  upon  the  good  faith 
of  the  States.  No  trust  was  thereby  attached  to  the  lands, 
and  the  title  to  them,  which  is  derived  from  either  of  tht. 
States,  is  not  affected  by  the  manner  in  which  she  performed 
that  obligation." 

And  again,  in  Hagar  vs.  Reclamation  District,  in  U.  S., 
701,  it  was  said: 

"It  is  not  competent  for  the  owners  of  land  which  is  a  part 
of  a  grant  to  a  State  under  the  Swamp  Land  Act,  9  Stat. 
519,  to  set  up  in  proceedings  begun  to  enforce  a  tax  on  the 
land  assessed  under  a  State  law  for  the  purpose  of  draining 
and  improving  it  that  the  State  law  impairs  the  obligation  of 
the  contract  between  the  State  and  the  United  States  and  so 
violates  the  constitution;  because  (i),  if  the  Swamp  Land 
Act  constituted  a  contract  between  the  State  and  the  United 
States,  he  was  no  party  to  it;  and  (2)  the  appropriation  of 
the  proceeds  of  the  granted  swamp  lands  rests  solely  in  the 
good  faith  of  the  State." 

Meaning  of  Decisions. 

In  the  first  decision  quoted  it  is  declared  that  the  obliga- 
tion of  a  State  to  reclaim  the  land  rests  upon  the  State  alone, 
and  that  no  trust  is  thereby  attached  to  the  land  itself,  but 
that  the  title  to  such  land  when  obtained  from  the  State  is  not 
affected  by  the  manner  in  which  the  State  might  perform  its 
duty  to  the  Government. 
27— 


In  the  second  decision  it  is  declared  that  the  purchaser  of 
State  swamp  lands  is  not  a  party  to  the  contract  between  the 
State  and  the  United  States  relating  to  reclamation,  and 
that  the  appropriation  of  the  proceeds  from  the  granted 
swamp  lands  to  reclamation  rests  solely  upon  the  good  faith 
of  the  State. 

These  decisions  of  the  highest  tribunal  of  the  land  set  at 
rest  the  whole  question  as  to  the  legal  right  of  a  State  to  now 
create  a  swamp  land  district  and  include  within  its  boundaries 
reclaimed  and  unreclaimed  land,  and  assess  all  the  land  so  in- 
cluded for  purposes  of  general  reclamation,  and  clearly  dis- 
closes the  fact  that  the  State  possesses  no  such  right. 

This  practically  disposes  of  the  proposition  to  abandon  the 
policy  of  reclamation  by  districts,  and  substitutes  for  it  a 
single  reclamation  system,  embracing  all  of  the  lands,  re- 
claimed and  unreclaimed,  in  one  general  system. 

Considerations  of  brevity  forbid  any  further  examination 
of  the  propositions  which  have  been  mooted  in  this  paper. 
The  present  purpose  will  have  been  accomplished  by  calling 
attention  to  the  fact  that  with  the  revival  of  the  old  abandon- 
ed theory  of  a  general  reclamation  system  or  none,  theories 
long  since  relegated  to  disuse  by  scientific  inquiry  are  revived. 
For  instance,  the  idea  of  the  multiplicity  of  channels  as  a  re- 
lief for  maximum  flood  conditions  is  brought  forward  with 
all  the  complacency  that  would  be  manifested  if  the  utter  in- 
utility  of  that  method  was  not  far  within  the  range  of  ascer- 
tained knowledge. 

Engineer' 's  Testimony. 

James  B.  Eads,  the  distinguished  hydraulic  engineer,  who 

—28 


was  brought  to  this  State  by  the  commissioners  appointed 
under  the  Act  of  April  23,  1880,  in  an  able  and  exhaustive  re- 
port declared  that  the  multiplication  of  channels  reduced  the 
drainage  capacity  of  a  stream.  He  showed  that  the  divi- 
sion of  the  channel  of  a  stream  augmented  the  friction  which 
resists  a  current,  whereas  confining  the  stream  to  a  single  ade- 
quate channel  induced  the  formation  of  a  hydraulic  prism, 
which  is  the  form  insuring  the  maximum  of  flow  with  the 
minmium  of  friction. 

The  revival  of  past  theories  is  accompanied  by  a  proposi- 
tion to  construct  what  was  known  as  the  Montezuma  canal. 
This  means  a  canal  from  Greys  Bend,  above  the  mouth  of 
Feather  River  on  the  Sacramento,  through  the  Yolo-Solano 
Tule  Basin  and  through  a  canal  cut  through  the  Monte- 
zuma Hills  into  Suisun  Bay.  This  proposition  underwent 
the  most  rigid  engineering  inquiry  at  the  expense  of  the  State 
and  at  the  hands  of  Engineer  Smith,  whose  experience  as  a 
hydraulic  engineer  was  acquired  in  the  service  of  the  British 
Government  in  India  when  the  national  irrigation  systems  of 
that  country  were  constructed.  His  report  condemned  the 
scheme  as  wholly  impracticable.  While  the  reasons  for  this 
conclusion  were  retained  in  the  popular  mind,  the  Monte- 
zuma canal  was  deemed  an  impossibility.  Its  specter  rises 
as  the  invaluable  literature  relating  to  it  is  forgotten. 

The  propositions  now  brought  forward  are  prompted  by 
the  most  public-spirited  and  patriotic  motives.  From  the 
standard  of  motive,  they  are  worthy  of  the  highest  commen- 
dation. They  are  not  amenable  to  the  charge  of  having  been 
mooted  by  individuals  or  any  class  of  individuals,  or  pro- 
—29 


moted  by  any  special  class  of  property  owners,  but  they  vio- 
late the  maxim  that  the  present  must  be  a  continuation  of  the 
settled  principles  and  ascertained  knowledge  of  the  past  if  it 
is  to  have  profitable  continuity  with  the  future.  In  the  evo- 
lution of  the  policy  of  reclamation  there  is  in  existence  a 
copious  literature.  In  1874,  acting  under  the  instruction  of 
the  government  and  in  pursuance  of  joint  resolution  of  Con- 
gress, the  government  engineers  made  a  hydrographic  survey 
of  the  State  of  California.  This  survey  was  conducted  by 
Colonel  Alexander,  under  whose  immediate  direction  the  data 
was  compiled  and  the  invaluable  maps  drawn.  The  report 
treated  the  whole  subject  of  irrigation,  reclamation  and  drain- 
age. Its  salient  recommendation  was  the  construction  of  a 
canal  skirting  the  foothills  between  the  mountains  and  the 
level  land  of  the  interior  basin  and  the  transfusion  and 
equalization  of  the  flow  of  all  the  affluents  of  the  San  Joaquin 
and  Sacramento  valleys. 

The  report  of  Engineer  Smith  with  accompanying  maps  on 
the  Montezuma  Hills  canal ;  the  report  of  James  B.  Eads, 
special  consulting  engineer  on  the  drainage  of  the  Sacramento 
valley;  the  various  reports  of  State  Engineer  William  Ham- 
mond Hall  and  his  assistant,  C.  E.  Grunsky — these  with  the 
reports  of  the  State  swamp  land  commissions  at  various  times 
have  cost  the  State  in  the  aggregate  nearly  $500,000.  It 
is  a  sad  commentary  on  the  method  in  which  these  costly  in- 
strumentalities of  popular  education  have  been  preserved  that 
their  irrefragable  conclusions  are  no  longer  a  guide  to  public 
opinion. 


—30 


FOR  FREE  LITERATURE  OR  GENERAL 
INFORMATION  ABOUT  CALIFORNIA, 
ADDRESS 

CALIFORNIA 
STATE  BOARD  OF  TRADE 

UNION  FERRY  BUILDING 
SAN  FRANCISCO    -     -    CALIFORNIA 


14  DAY  USE 

RETURN  TO  DESK  FROM  WHICH  BORROWED 

LOAN  DEPT. 

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